Stew Mel vs Hillhead Jordanhill, 27/1/07

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Squad

The Stewart's Melville FP RFC team to play Hillhead Jordanhill at Inverleith on Saturday, kick off 2.30 pm, is:

There are a number of changes to the team that made the trip to the west coast last week. Four of these have been forced upon us - Phil Hendry has a hand injury, Dougie Naismith has an arm injury, Rob Primrose is away working and Colin Goudie is unavailable as he is in the Scotland U20 squad to play England next week..

As a result, Dalgy moves to 6 and Jebb starts in the Second Row alongside Scott Brewster. Ross Doneghan replaces Jebb on the bench, where Andy Statham also appears in place of David Calder. David is set to get some game time with the 2nd XV this weekend.

Behind the scrum, Stuart Goudie replaces Rob at 9 and Alex Cox comes onto the bench in place of Stuart's brother.

As Riggers says in his programme notes for tomorrow's game, we are not yet in a position to rest on our laurels this season, with relegation still mathematically possible. A win tomorrow is therefore very important, and I hope that the size of the crowd will reflect this - please get behind your team!

Malky's Musings

The Inverleith faithful witnessed a much improved performance from the first team on Saturday, and one which eased any concerns about the club being dragged into the relegation battle.

Our west coast visitors started with real vigour, retaining possession well and bringing their back three into the line at every opportunity to assault our midfield. Thankfully, our defence held firm, with some great fringe tackling from the pack and some big hits from Stu Ker, Murray Allan and Sky further out.

The first score of the game came against the run of play, on 20 minutes, when turnover ball deep in our own half was used to great effect to release Gavin Sharp down the far wing. Gavin showed good pace to leave the covering defence trailing, and he then fixed the fullback before offloading a great back handed pass to allow Jimmy Moran to score in the corner. Jimmy missed the tricky conversion, but he extended the lead only two minutes later with a superbly struck penalty goal into the wind. (Stew Mel 8 – Hills 0)

Hillhead continued to enjoy a good share of the possession, and they eventually got themselves on the score sheet through their second penalty attempt after we were adjudged to have killed the ball in a ruck. Pete McLean was sin binned on 37 minutes for failing to roll away at the tackle, but the pack responded well and started to take the game to the visitors. Indeed, we controlled the ball well and kept our opponents pinned back till the break. The final score of the half came from another well struck Moran penalty goal, and we changed ends 11-3 ahead.

The visitors came hard at us again after the restart, and they were successful in narrowing the gap to 5 points with their second penalty goal. But, with the wind at our backs and with Pete McLean back from the sin bin, we regained the momentum. On 53 minutes Richard Borthwick finished well to score our second try and take the lead to 18-6. We continued to enjoy the bulk of the possession and the territorial advantage, but, with the penalty count heavily in Hillhead’s favour, we struggled to put ourselves out of sight.

It appeared as though the final quarter would be a tense affair, but our forwards were now exerting a good level of control and we finally pressed home our advantage when an intelligent switch of play allowed Gav to coast in near the corner. Jimmy converted and we looked relatively comfortable at 25-6. With our tails up, the backs started to cut the opposition defence apart, with Murray Allan, Alex Cox and Stuart Goudie all impressing. It was, however, Stuart Ker who rounded off another composed display at stand off with the final scores of the day, finishing off an excellent handling move on 80 minutes and then scoring an excellent individual try during injury time. Jimmy slotted both conversions and the final score sat at 37-6.

The score did not fully reflect the level of effort and endeavour shown by Hillhead, and I suspect that it is still too early to sound the funeral music on their season. From our perspective, it is excellent to see the team playing with great heart and a high level of composure after a number of enforced changes. Stuart Ker has settled in well to the stand off role, and our debutant in the second row, Jebb Sinclair, showed that he is more than capable of playing at this level. It has been a difficult season, but spirits are high and we hope to see a good travelling support for Saturday’s cup game at Howe of Fife.

Malky

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